The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has said that Nigeria’s GIS-enabled alphanumeric digital postcode system will be launched in October this year as part of the ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing the government’s digital economy drive.
The minister gave this hint on Monday at the National Digital Alphanumeric Postcode System Workshop with theme “Operationalising the Nigerian Digital Postcode for National Security and Public Safety” held in collaboration with the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in Abuja.
Tijani explained that an alphanumeric postcode meant that every single building in the country, including those in rural areas, would have unique codes
He clarified: “The first set of locations, areas, and states will be released in October this year, and I am pushing them hard to ensure that we cover a significant number of states before the end of the year.
- Advertisement -
“For those who participate in keeping our country safe, we all know that you are operating in an environment where timeliness, precision and coordination are at the core of security. This determines whether crimes are solved, whether threats are contained and whether people’s lives are saved or not”, Tijani added.
Describing the Nigerian Digital Postcode System as a foundational layer of Digital Public Infrastructure, the minister restated the government’s commitment to ensuring that the system is operationalised and integrated across government institutions in order to build a modern, inclusive, and globally competitive digital economy.
Tijani assured stakeholders in the digital economy landscape that the innovation would serve as a national enabler for improved emergency response, public safety, logistics, e-commerce, national planning, and government service delivery.
He explained: “The future we are building is one where every incident, every facility, every operation, and every response in Nigeria is anchored on a single, trusted location layer. When that happens, coordination becomes instantaneous, accountability becomes traceable, and response becomes precise.”
Speaking at the forum, the Postmaster General/CEO of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Ms. Tola Odeyemi, recalled that for many decades, incomplete and inconsistent addressing systems had constrained emergency response, investigations, intelligence gathering, and postal service delivery.
She projected that the Digital Alphanumeric Postcode System would provide a common language for location intelligence by assigning every location in the country a unique GIS-enabled postcode that can be accurately identified and verified across systems and institutions.
She said: “The Digital Postcode provides trusted location intelligence, the critical layer that allows people, assets, services, and institutions to be accurately located and connected. For our security and law enforcement agencies, the possibilities are transformative.”
While charging stakeholders to move from awareness to implementation of the digital postcode when launched, Odeyemi maintained that the success of the initiative would not be determined by technology alone but by adoption.
It would be recalled that the minister had in a post in March this year confirmed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the implementation of the GIS-enabled alphanumeric digital postcode system to modernize the nation’s addressing framework.
Over the years, Nigeria has long operated a standard numeric postal code system managed by the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), such as 100001 for Lagos Island, where every region, district, and delivery area is identified by a six-digit code used mainly for sorting and routing mail delivery nationwide.
